


Witch Hunt

by itsnemily (thorleesi)



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen, bamon roadtrip
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-21
Updated: 2016-04-05
Packaged: 2018-05-28 01:36:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 12,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6309097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thorleesi/pseuds/itsnemily
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are currently hundreds of Bennett descendants living across America, and one of them has the key to breaking Elena's sleeping curse and Bonnie's connection to her. The Mystic Falls crew have narrowed it down to about 12 possible candidates and a plan to systematically make their way down the list. Can somebody say roadtrip?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Annie Bennett-Lowe

**Author's Note:**

> so in between writing fluffy bamon apparently I like to write /more/ fluffy bamon, oops! I have the whole thing planned out so it's just a matter of getting it all written, I aim to update at least once a week. Enjoy!

 Bonnie tossed another shirt in her duffle bag and zipped it up.

"Are you _sure_ you want to do this alone?" Caroline asked, sitting cross legged on her bed with a disapproving frown settled on her face.

She riffled through the side pockets in search of her toothbrush. "I won't be al-"

"I know, not _technically_ ," Caroline rolled her eyes and leaned forward, "but you're going with _Damon_. We've worked together this far, I don't understand why you won't let me do this next part with you."

"You know you'd be my first pick for this," Bonnie lamented, lying through her teeth, "but if you come, then Stefan will want to come and honestly we don't need all four of us chasing rumours across the country."

That, and Caroline's incessant organization would drive Bonnie crazy if she was the only company she'd have for weeks on end. At least with Damon she knew exactly what to expect, and considering they both made it back from the 1994 prison world without murdering each other it bode well for the hours they'd be stuck in the car together.

And that's not accounting for Damon and Bonnie being the two people who would go to the ends of the earth for Elena Gilbert.

"Fine," Caroline conceded, studying the map laid out in front of her for the millionth time. Red circles indicated all the potential candidates, with long winding lines laying out the routes they should take.

Bonnie watched her friend pointedly avoid making eye contact with a small smile on her lips. "Care?" She said.

"Mmhmm?" Caroline answered without looking up.

"I'm going to miss you," Bonnie pulled the strap of her bag over her shoulder. A small sighed slipped out, and Caroline looked up reluctantly.

"I'll miss you too, Bon," she carefully folded up the map and handed it to Bonnie, "I still wish I was coming with you."

Bonnie clutched the map of Bennett witches to her chest, and Caroline pulled her into a close hug. "When's Damon picking you up?"

"He and Stefan are in the parking lot now," Bonnie read off her phone. Caroline's eyes brightened at the second Salvatore's name, and she promptly offered to walk Bonnie to the car.

"Be careful," Caroline warned, her hand sliding down the worn banister in their dorm. "I know you and Damon get along, but, I don't know. Just be careful."

"Caroline," Bonnie held on to held on to her friend's arm to stop her, "Damon's my best friend - he's not going to hurt me. I know you aren't his biggest fan but you need to let that fear go."

Bonnie felt Caroline studying her face for a few moments, leading her to consider looking deeper into her warnings, but Caroline's soft smile returned.

"They're waiting for us," she said. Bonnie raised an eyebrow but followed her out of their dorm into the sunlight.

"Let me come with you," Stefan pleaded for what felt like the thousandth time that day. It probably was.

Damon poked at something he didn't recognize under the hood. "No," he answered his brother, pulling the unrecognizable something right out of its place. Oops.

Stefan groaned.

"Put it back," he said, pain seeping into his voice. " _Please_."

Damon tossed it back in and closed the hood. "We'll be fine, I can do car stuff," he shrugged. Stefan covered his mouth with a concerned hand to keep himself from telling Damon exactly wrong he was.

He slammed the hood shut. "Are you sure you and Bonnie can handle this?" Stefan asked, resigned to being left behind. "I'm worried about what's going to happen when this wild goose chase doesn't work out."

"It's going to work," Damon said quickly. It had to.

Stefan ran a hand through his hair. "Look Damon, I want to break Elena's curse just as much as you do. But I don't want to see you get your hopes up and be crushed again."

Damon tossed his keys in the air and caught them before replying. "No you don't," he said, "there is one other person who could come close to it, and she's riding shotgun."

On cue Bonnie and Caroline walked towards them from across the Whitmore parking lot. "Ready to go Bon Bon?" Damon pulled the door open and leaned against it, tapping the keys impatiently against the roof of the car.

Stefan offered to take Bonnie's bag and tossed it in the trunk, while she gave Caroline one last hug. "Let me know the _second_ you find anything, promise? And no murder," she instructed.

"I promise," Bonnie laughed and climbed into the passenger seat beside Damon. She blew a kiss to Caroline out the window as he revved the engine.

"Who's ready for a witch hunt?" Damon hiked his eyebrows with a smirk.

The buzz and excitement the beginning of a road trip offers wore off within about twenty minutes.

"This station is terrible," Bonnie reached for the dials, but Damon smacked her hand away.

"Yeah, and like your Top 40 station would be any better," he reached across the car and nudged Bonnie's legs, "feet off the dash." Bonnie rolled her eyes and placed her feet right back exactly where they were.

She dug the map out of her pocket and gently unfolded it to reveal the state of Virginia. "First up is… wildly distant cousin Annie Bennett-Lowe," Bonnie read from the notes Caroline left her, "Charlottesville."

Damon glanced at the clock. "Should be there in two hours, three tops," he assessed.

"Perfect," Bonnie said after reading through the rest of the notes, "we can stop by her classroom after school."

Hollymead Elementary School was out when they got there. "Caroline _did_ give us a home address, didn't she?" Damon looked around the eerily empty hallways uncomfortably.

"Excuse me, can I help you?" A short man with round glasses carrying several folders appeared out of nowhere.

"Oh um, we're looking for Annie Bennett-Lowe's classroom? We were hoping to speak with her if she's still here," Bonnie said politely. The man looked between the two of them frowning.

"We heard her kindergarten class was the best one," Damon slid his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close, "we're scouting out teachers in the district, and we only want the best for little Damon Jr."

Bonnie stifled a laugh and nodded along with utmost seriousness, laying her head against Damon's chest, patting her hand against him lightly to sell it.

The man pointed to the next hallway over. "It's the first left," he huffed, "prospective parents should really call ahead you know." He waddled away without a second look.

Bonnie lifted her head and smacked Damon's arm. "Damon Jr.? You couldn't come up with anything better?" She laughed.

He shrugged. "It has a nice ring to it, don't you think?"

"Not in the slightest," Bonnie said, and rapped her knuckles against her cousin's classroom door, peering inside. "Hello?"

Worn toys and books lined brightly coloured shelves, but the room was empty save for a woman sitting at a child sized table reading over lesson plans.

"My name is Bonnie Bennett," she approached the table, "I was hoping you might be able to help us with something."

Annie set her pen down, and turned to face the pair of strangers interrupting her. "First you'll have to explain what exactly a vampire is doing in my school," she eyed Damon with disdain only a disappointed teacher can manage.

"There's a spell we're trying to track down, and from what we know of its history it could have been passed down through your line of the family tree," Bonnie explained hopefully, and described the spell in detail. "We just want to bring back someone we care about," she finished quietly.

Annie removed her glasses and looked at them with sadness. "I'm really sorry to hear about your friend," she offered, "but this is the first I've heard of any spell like this outside of the fairy tales I read for my students."

Damon nodded, stone faced and stuffed his hands in his pockets. Bonnie thanked Annie for her time, trying not to let the answer sting - there were still a dozen other Bennetts who could hold the answer to bringing Elena back, after all.

"Good luck with Damon Jr.," Annie called out to them wryly, laughter dancing on her smile. Bonnie shook her head at a smug Damon.

Back in the car she pulled out a small notebook and crossed off the first name on the list.

"Who's next?" He started the car.

"Thomas Bennett. Hanover, Pennsylvania," Bonnie read, hope seeping back into her heart. Damon nodded and pulled out of the school's parking lot.

One down. Eleven to go.


	2. Thomas Bennett

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pillows are thrown, blankets are stolen, and damn it Bonnie, the back seat is NOT a garbage can.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a short chapter but it's filled with lots of fun moments! I wanted to post something tonight because from the looks of the polls bamon's made it to the final round of zimbio's march madness and I thought that was worth celebrating!

Bonnie licked the orange dust off her fingertips, her brows furrowed together as she stared out the window at the scenery whizzing by, blurring together with the ever changing pink that surrounded the setting sun. Hanover was a bust. Thomas was sweet, but wasn't a particularly accomplished witch. He offered them tea, a friendly face, and a few snacks for on the road. She crunched another Cheeto in her teeth and looked into the crumb laden bottom of the bag longingly.

She crumpled the bag and tossed it into the backseat with a sigh.

"Watch it, litterbug," Damon warned, reaching behind the seats with one hand still on the wheel. He picked up Bonnie's garbage and shoved it in the cupholder to deal with later.

"If we keep driving we could make it to New York by midnight," she said, pointedly ignoring him, and pulled out their map again, "but I think we should stop somewhere for the night and keep going in the morning."

Damon shook his head. "We'll keep going. The faster we get to everyone the faster we get Elena back."

"We keep going like this we're going to burn ourselves out. Look," she pointed out the window at a sign they flew past, "there's a place we can stay at the next exit. We'll get to everybody, we'll just be smart about it."

Damon grimaced, but pulled the car into the next lane at Bonnie's request.

Their room was sparse and ugly, but at least it was clean and a place to rest for a few hours. "Dibs on the bed," Bonnie tossed her bag on the sole queen and bee lined for the bathroom to do her teeth and change.

When she came out Damon was lounged right in the middle of it, with his shoes still on. Bonnie's nose wrinkled at the sight.

"Are you unfamiliar with the rules of dibs?" She sat on the corner of the bed beside him, and attempted to push his nasty shoe wearing feet off of where she wanted to sleep.

He smirked and replaced his feet. "What, you don't want to share?"

"Not in the slightest," Bonnie stretched her arms high above her head, eager to work out all the kinks that developed from sitting in the car for hours. The further she stretched the higher the hem of her shirt climbed, revealing a small breadth of her lower back. Behind her, Damon's eyes absentmindedly landed on her bared skin.

Snapping himself back to the present, he tossed the notebook filled with names and details at Bonnie. It bounced off her shoulder with a gentle _thwack_ and landed on the bed behind her. "Rude," she said, tossing it back at his face.

"Who's next on this convoluted family reunion?" Damon flipped the pages in his thumbs, grinning.

"Leah and Sarah Booth," Bonnie recited from memory.

Damon raised an eyebrow. "Lesbians?"

"Don't be gross," she smacked his leg, "twins."

"Even better," he winked.

Bonnie rolled her eyes in disgust, and leaned back to rest on her elbows, her legs still hanging over the end of the bed. "You're revolting," she said, and not for the first time that day.

"I'm a delight," he taunted, hopping off the bed. "You hungry?"

Bonnie shook her head. The McDonald's they picked up an hour before still sat in her stomach heavily.

"You sure? Vending machine has Mars Bars and cute blondes at the overnight desk," he said, smirking, and grabbed the room key from the table by the door. Bonnie pulled a face.

"Do you have to? She seemed nice," she frowned.

Exasperated, Damon closed the half open door he was about to step through. "Blood doesn't exactly travel well, Bon Bon," he said, leaning against the motel door, "but I promise to do a quick Snatch-Eat-Erase that would make Caroline proud."

Opening the door again he added, "And you're not exactly offering."

"You're right," Bonnie said, her eyes dropping to her wrist. Damon watched her, his brows furrowing together for a split second trying to decipher the implications before she added, "I'm not." She laughed, reaching above her head for one of the pillows.

The door was closed a fraction of a second before the pillow hit exactly where Damon had been standing.

Bonnie was cuddled under the covers when he came back a few hours later. Lights from the parking lot shone through the blinds, and muffled voices from the television next door drifted through the wall. But the rest of the world was still.

"Move over, Bon," Damon grumbled tiredly, and flopped down beside her on the bed.

Bonnie rubbed her eye with the heel of her hand. "I called dibs. Go away," she whined. She was having such a good dream.

He pawed at the covers, completely ignoring her and climbed underneath them. Bonnie rolled away from him, deliberately pulling the blankets with her.

Damon retaliated by pushing her right off the bed with his foot; he didn't account for the blankets going with her but he grinned nonetheless. She landed on the floor with a _thud._

He watched her face appear again over the side of the mattress as she sat up, eyes aflame with pure, uncontained rage. Damon had never feared for his life more.

Bonnie whispered an incantation, her voice low and gravelly from sleep and his head instantly felt like she set it on fire. Damon clutched his head in pain and to his relief he discovered it wasn't _actually_ on fire, but he was effectively out of commission.

"Ow, _ow_ ," he curled up into a ball on his side of the bed, "I give!"

Satisfied, Bonnie stopped the spell and burrowed back underneath the blankets until she was comfortable again. Damon lay very, very still until the sun came up, lest he inspire the wrath of Bonnie Bennett twice in one night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't forget to vote when the championship polls open tomorrow on zimbio's website!


	3. Leah and Sarah Booth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Three hours, four rest stops, and one I Spy game abruptly cut short by Bonnie threatening to drive into the next tree later ("I swear to God, Damon, if you pick 'grass' one more time."), the pair found themselves knocking on the Booth twins' apartment door."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy one week until TVD comes back! (If you live in Canada like me lol) Don't forget to keep voting in the Zimbio polls, they close tonight!!

Damon shifted unhappily, trying to find a comfortable spot for his head. Crossing his arms, he slid down his seat and settled for resting his temple against the ledge beneath the window. Exhaustion pooled behind his eyes, and after a moment, they fluttered closed.

The car swerving abruptly jolted him awake. Damon threw an arm out, bracing himself on the window and looked around in a panic.

"What the _hell_ , Bonnie?"

Bonnie shrugged, a smirk dancing on her lips. "I thought I saw a cat," she said.

Damon narrowed his eyes. "You can't still be sore about last night." He readjusted himself in his seat and glanced out the window at the passing New York countryside.

Bonnie looked at him over her sunglasses. "Are you serious? You kicked me out of bed. You _literally_ kicked me out of bed," she reiterated.

"Yes," he said, "and you set my brains on fire. I thought we'd moved on from that particular episode."

Bonnie slid her shades back into place and stared out at the road in front of them. "Clearly not," Damon observed.

"Right out of bed. I have a _bruise_ on my knee," she said, shaking her head in disbelief before turning to him again. "I had to get Stefan _and_ Caroline to talk me out of murdering you."

Damon shifted in his seat. "You talked to them? When?"

"You were asleep for a while. I got bored." Bonnie leaned on her hand, her elbow resting on the ledge of the open window.

A smirk crept onto his face, and he nodded knowingly. "Oh, I see what happened. You couldn't stand being out of my company for even an hour, and just _had_ to wake me up."

"Of course not," Bonnie said abrubtly. "I mean, fine. That's not _entirely_ untrue," she added, the harsh edge to her voice gone.

When she saw the self-satisfied grin that spread across his face she continued, "But I regret it _instantly._ "

"Sure thing, Bon Bon." Damon winked, prompting her to roll her eyes. "So are we going to play I Spy or what?"

Three hours, four rest stops, and one I Spy game abruptly cut short by Bonnie threatening to drive into the next tree later ("I swear to God, Damon, if you pick 'grass' _one more time_."), the pair found themselves knocking on the Booth twins' apartment door.

It swung open revealing a small woman with a bright smile. "Bonnie Bennett," she greeted and stepped aside, inviting her in.

Bonnie shot a concerned look at Damon. "You know who I am?"

The girl nodded, and stuck out her hand. "Leah Booth," she introduced herself, before hollering over her shoulder. "Sarah! We've got guests!"

Bonnie stepped across the threshold and shook Leah's hand. "My Gran was Sheila's first cousin. She helped us out a lot," she continued. "I've seen some pictures."

"Well, it's nice to officially meet you." Bonnie returned her smile and glanced around the apartment. A girl identical to Leah -minus the smile and perky presence-, padded out of one in the bedrooms in pajamas and a large Wesleyan hoodie.

Damon stood impatiently in the hallway. "Bon?"

"This is Damon, he's-"

"Cute," said Sarah, through a mouthful of Cheerios she just dug out of the box on the kitchen counter.

Damon's sour mood quickly lifted, he looked over at Bonnie and a flattered smirk appeared on his face.

"Don't encourage him," she said, refraining from rolling her eyes again. "If his ego gets any bigger he won't fit back into the car."

"If the lady wants to give me a compliment, who are we to say she shouldn't?" Damon asked, winking at Sarah.

Leah invited him in, offering to make them tea while Bonnie explained their predicament. Sarah floated in and out of the conversation, but reappeared fully dressed in time for the end.

"What about Gran's grimoire?" Sarah suggested, flopping down on the couch beside Damon.

Her twin nodded. "I seem to recall a similar spell in one of the books she left us." Leah's brows furrowed together trying to remember which one.

Bonnie brightened at the thought but Damon remained uncharacteristically quiet. "Well," Bonnie said, "let's get started."

The afternoon drifted away, Bonnie and Leah spending it sitting cross legged on the floor with spellbooks spread around them, diligently searching for a solution. Damon and Sarah spent the afternoon drinking beer and seeing if they could catch jelly beans in their mouths.

When the arguably less productive pair left to pick up dinner, Leah leaned in and asked, "Are you sure he wants to find this spell?"

Bonnie shut another spellbook with a sigh. "Despite flirting with your sister all afternoon, he really believes Elena is the love of his life," she said.

"And you don't?" Leah asked.

"Elena is my best friend," Bonnie said after a beat.

"That's not a real answer," Leah teased, returning her gaze to the book open on her lap.

Bonnie slid the grimoire off her lap, leaning back on her hands. "They're… complicated. They tend to bring things out in each other that probably shouldn't be." She glanced over at the door to make sure it stayed shut before continuing, "Honestly I think a few decades apart would be good for Damon."

Leah nodded to indicate she was still listening, and flipped the page. "I can see that."

"But I want to see my best friend again." Bonnie straightened and pulled another worn book into her lap. "So we're going to find that spell, wake Elena up, and deal with the rest later."

Her cousin watched her carefully for a minute, but before she could respond the door flew open and a very boisterous Damon and Sarah walked in with Indian food.

"Sorry we took so long," he said. "Ran into some jerks just _begging_ to be drained of their blood."

"I'm sure," Bonnie responded, unamused.

"Don't be upset, Bon Bon, I brought your favourite." He pulled a container of butter chicken from the bag and slid it onto the counter. Bonnie's stomach growled. "See? You're starving. Come eat."

Bonnie and Leah ate quietly, making small talk and eager to get back to the task at hand.

"Damon and I are going to watch a movie if you guys are good here," Sarah announced, grabbing two more beers from the fridge and leading him to her room. Leah and Bonnie exchanged entirely unimpressed looks.

"He does love her," she said, piling the dishes by the sink. "He just doesn't deal well when she's not around."

"I didn't say a word," Leah replied. Tired, the two girls returned to their spellbooks.

Bonnie flipped another page. "He takes getting used to."

"You don't have to defend him to me, Bonnie. We all deal with our issues in different ways. I don't believe for a second that you'd be helping him reunite with Elena, or hanging around him, if he wasn't worth your time." She tossed aside another book.

"We've been through a lot together." Bonnie fiddled with the worn edges absentmindedly.

"Here," Leah said suddenly, sliding a book between her and Bonnie. "This is definitely the spell I was talking about."

They read over the page and Bonnie deflated. "It's to preserve living plants," she said.

"I'm so sorry, Bonnie, I thought the two spells might have the same foundation that we could build on." Leah frowned at the book.

Bonnie shook her head. "It's the closest we've gotten so far. Thank you."

Leah squeezed her cousin's shoulder before standing up. "I'll get you some blankets for the couch."

When Leah disappeared into her own room for the night, Bonnie tossed the spellbook away angrily. For one afternoon she almost believed they were going to find it.

"Careful with the books, Bon Bon, they're real old," Damon said, emerging from the bedroom, shirtless.

"Why do you have to be like this?" She stood and began to collect the remaining spellbooks from the floor, stacking them on the coffee table.

"I'm just trying to have a fun time on this wild goose chase," he snapped.

"We're not on a vacation, Damon," she said.

Damon leaned against the wall on his elbow. "Well, that's news to me considering you don't even want to wake Elena up."

"Excuse me?" Bonnie dropped another stack of books on the table.

"I mean, are you even trying? What was it you said?" He tapped his chin pretending to remember. "Oh right! You didn't want Elena back because we bring out the worst in each other."

Bonnie grit her teeth. "That's not what I said."

"It's what you meant," he challenged.

"Even if that was even _partly_ true, I'm damn well trying harder than _you_ ," she shot back. "All you've done today is drink and sleep with my cousin."

"What can I say, maybe a few decades without Elena will make me a better person," Damon said.

"You know what? Elena _does_ bring something awful out in you, even when she's not around." Bonnie said coolly, knowing she'd hit a nerve.

"I'm going to bed," Damon announced.

"Good," she said.

Sarah's door slammed shut and Bonnie flopped onto the couch angrily, crawling under the covers Leah left for her. With a resigned sigh, she pulled the pillow around her ears in an effort to drown out the high pitched giggles coming from Sarah's room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof. It would be unfortunate if they were trapped together in some sort of confined space for 7 hours and forced to have a heart to heart. (OH WAIT)


	4. Travis Cameron

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bonnie and Damon play a fun round of the classic road trip game “Who can stay quiet the longest?”
> 
> Just kidding. It’s super awkward and no one has a good time.

They hit the road as soon as Bonnie woke up. The sun was still rising, and the air was damp with the morning's mist. Damon climbed into the driver's seat without a word, and Bonnie slammed her door shut.

He eyed the door, a snarky reprimand to be gentle with his car on his tongue, but turned the keys in the ignition silently. The atmosphere was heavy with things unsaid, but neither of them refused to budge, prompting an impromptu four and a half hour long game of "Who can stay quiet the longest?"

"Is that what this trip is about, to see if you can bang your way across the country?" Bonnie finally caved just before hour five, moving her gaze from staring out with window to Damon behind the wheel. Before he could answer she added, "Or is it a one-in-every-state kind of deal? Is there a point system I should be aware of?"

Damon ran a hand through his hair, leaning his elbow on the door with mild irritation but maintained his silence. Bonnie watched him carefully, shifting in her seat to face him.

"What is Elena going to think when she finds out it didn't even take _a year_ for you to move on?" Bonnie asked, knowing full well it was another low blow. She didn't care. "This next cousin could have the answer. Or the next. We could wake Elena within a week, how-"

"Bon," Damon warned. She paused, a realization suddenly hitting her.

"You don't think we're going to find the spell." Bonnie stated.

He looked over at her, one of the rare moments without his arrogant, snarky front, searching for the right words. "I think it's a long shot," he finally answered.

"Then what are we doing here?". Bonnie's confusion spread across her face.

Damon shrugged with his hand still on the wheel. "I get to see Elena again. No matter what," he said. Bonnie leaned back in her seat, his implication clear. "If this doesn't work out, it will be disappointing. But I'll see her again in the end."

" _My_ end," Bonnie qualified. "So, you're driving all the way across the country on the chance that I _might_ get to see my best friend again?"

Damon's over-confident front returned in full force. "Well, that and I'm trying to break my record from my _last_ roadtrip. Did you know that Bennett witches are triple points?" He raised a suggestive eyebrow and winked.

"You wish." Bonnie relaxed her head against the window and put her feet up, feeling at ease for the first time since they got into the car. "Either way, you'll get to see her soon. We all know I'm destined to die young. Again." she joked, but Damon glanced over at her, the light hearted expression diminished once more.

"Not if I can help it," he promised.

"I know." She smiled at him gratefully, and inexplicable warmth filling her chest. "I'm sorry about what I said about Elena yesterday. I didn't say it to be hurtful." She added, playing with a button on her shirt.

"Bygones." He brushed it off, eager to put that particular conversation in their past.

"I didn't mean you were better off without her." Bonnie pushed, trying to articulate exactly what was on her mind. "I just meant… it's been really nice seeing the person you've become on your own. I like him."

"Even when that person pulls a Classic Damon move when he gets his feelings hurt?"

Bonnie grimaced, thinking about his behaviour yesterday. "I like _him_ a lot less."

Damon's face fell when he realized he wasn't off the hook, and tapped his thumbs on the steering wheel anxiously. "Would it help if I promised no more Bennett witches?" he asked making light of his actions, and Bonnie shot him an unimpressed look.

"With one exception." He changed tactics and smirked over at her again, playing up their flirting bit to get a reaction. She didn't return it.

"Even if you don't believe we can find the answer to waking Elena up, _I_ do. I'm focused on getting the spell." Bonnie folded her arms, staring out the windshield, pushing the frustration she felt with him down. "I'm not going to swear you to celibacy, but if you can't put your energy to the task at hand I might as well just go on without you."

"Got it," Damon said, irritated at being reprimanded but firmly added, "I'm committed to getting Elena back, okay?"

"Then prove it. Don't treat this like your own personal spring break." He nodded, and held out his pinky. Bonnie rolled her eyes, but her mood began to soften. "We're not pinky swearing on this. Just don't be an ass."

"Well let's not get _too_ ahead of ourselves." He grinned. "Who's next?"

She flipped open the notebook with a defeated sigh, and read, "Travis Cameron."

* * *

 

"It's probably fine," Damon said, staring at the white smoke emitting from the front of the car.

"That is _not_ fine." Bonnie leaned over the dash, peering at the smoke through the windshield. "Pull over. Call Stefan."

"I'm not calling Stefan."

" _Call your brother_."

Shooting an annoyed look at Bonnie, Damon pulled the car over to the shoulder and climbed out. Bonnie followed, watching as he pulled the hood open and stared at all the pieces, a pensive hand on his chin.

"You don't know what a single thing in there is," she stated after a few minutes of him poking random parts.

"I don't know what a single thing in here is," he repeated, continuing to stare. Bonnie held out her phone to him, and Damon pushed it away. "I'll figure it out. It'll be fine."

She rolled her eyes and walked to the back of the car, leaning against the trunk leaving Damon to stare under the hood. Dialling Caroline's number, she held the phone up to her ear.

" _Bonnie!"_ Caroline's chipper voice greeted.

"Hey, Care." Bonnie smiled at the sound of her friend's voice.

" _Is everything okay? Did you find it?"_

"Uh… not exactly. We've run into a bit of a problem."

" _What did he do?"_

Bonnie laughed into the phone and described the smoke to Caroline. About half a minute later, she heard Damon's ringtone from the other side of the car.

"Damnit it, Bonnie! I can figure it out!" he yelled.

"If you don't listen to him we won't even _need_ to be on this trip, because the car will have _blown us up_!" she yelled back, and brought the phone back to her ear. "Stefan's with you?" she asked Caroline.

Caroline hesitated. " _Uh...yeah, we've been hanging out. I thought if he called Damon to check in he could help,"_ she laughed uncomfortably.

"Say hi for me," Bonnie said, biting back a teasing comment.

Caroline paused a moment to eavesdrop on the Salvatores' conversation before answering, " _It sounds like it's a hose leaking coolant."_

"That's easy to fix, right?" Bonnie asked hopefully.

" _I guess so, apparently it just needs to be replaced. But from what I can tell Damon is trying to convince Stefan he can just duct tape it."_

"Oh, God. Alright thanks, Care. I'm going to see if I can get in touch with the auto shop at a rest stop we passed not too far back."

" _Good luck!"_

Bonnie rounded the front of the car ten minutes later, to find Damon fighting with the duct tape and a few seemingly unrelated car parts. "Tow truck's on its way," she said, struggling to keep from laughing at him as he glared up at her.

"I've got this." He fiddled with a hose, flinching when something hissed at him.

Bonnie nodded. "Mmhmm, I believe you. But just in case, the car guy said he could fix it within about an hour, hour and a half at most. Said we could wait at the diner next door until he was done."

Damon slammed the hood down in defeat.

The diner was exactly what you'd expect a restaurant at a rest stop in the middle of nowhere to look like, with tacky vinyl, worn cushions in the booths, and local kitsch on every ledge.

"What can I get ya?" The friendly waitress Bonnie's age slid her phone into her apron pocket, pulling out a notebook and pen.

Bonnie ordered fries, and watched Damon eyeing the woman's bare neck hungrily. "You," he answered, ready to compel her. Bonnie kicked him under their booth's table and shook her head at him.

"Your fries'll be right up." The waitress said to Bonnie. She turned her nose up at Damon adding, "You can do better."

"Don't I know it," Bonnie mumbled, prompting Damon to toss a wadded up napkin across the table at her head.

Smacking his hand away from her plate for the third time, Bonnie flipped through the notebook detailing her next relative. "We can make it to Travis' house within an hour," she said. "Then it looks like we can make it across the border to Tricia Bennett by dinner time."

"Fascinating." Damon stared at her fries longingly, and Bonnie rolled her eyes and slid the plate across the table.

The waitress had refused to hear another word from him when he tried to order his own. "She wouldn't have been worth many points anyways," he'd said, pouting when she rebuffed his attempts at flirting his way back into her good graces.

"Car's ready." Bonnie nodded out the window at the owner of the auto repair shop closing the hood of the Camaro. Their waitress slid the bill towards Bonnie, and cleared the half empty plate Damon was still eating from. He pouted all the way to Niagara Falls.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope it's not super obvious I know nothing about cars lol
> 
> As for the next chapter, what could our favourite duo /possibly/ get up to in the honeymoon capital of the world?


	5. Tricia Bennett

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bonnie crashes a wedding and Damon gets introspective when he realizes he’s not getting off the hook /that/ easy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OOF I hit a nerve last chapter! Shout out to you guys for sticking around and having some faith that I can pull this off. 
> 
> One thing I definitely want to clarify before we get to the next chapter- at this point in the fic, while the feelings are there Bonnie and Damon don't recognize those feelings in each other yet, let alone themselves. They'll get there! But no one is acting with the knowledge that these feelings exist, which would definitely make certain actions from past chapters (*coughDamoncough*) infinitely crueler.
> 
> That being said, I'm working on getting that to reflect better in my writing! But...it won't be long before feelings surface.

Bonnie slammed the door, climbing out of the car and Damon followed suit. Eyeing the porch decorated with lacy white bows, and a banner reading _Congratulations Tricia!_ , she turned to Damon and said, "You're staying at the car for this one."

"What? Why?" His brows furrowed together in confusion.

"I'm not going to risk you sleeping with _this_ cousin and ruining her wedding," she shot back, checking her hair in the mirror. She wasn't party ready but it would have to do.

"It was _one_ cousin." Damon defended himself half heartedly.

"One too many."

He shifted uncomfortably by the car, and Bonnie hopped up the steps without another word. When she knocked on the door, cheers erupted from inside the house, but when it opened the woman's face fell with disappointment.

"It's not the stripper!" she yelled into the living room, and the guests let out a disappointed groan.

"I'm so sorry to interrupt. I'll be really quick. I'm looking for Tricia Bennett?" Bonnie asked guiltily, knowing she was barging in on a special moment. But she wanted this road trip over, one way or the other, as soon as possible.

"Trish!" The woman called into the house, and peered out at Damon by the car. "Is _he_ the stripper?" she asked, lush with champagne. Bonnie scrunched up her nose.

"Can I help you?" Another woman, this one with a sash reading _Bride!_ hanging off her shoulder, came to the door.

"Hi Tricia, we've never met but my name is Bonnie Bennett, I-"

"Oh, you're one of _those_." Tricia winked, and leaned on the door, struggling with her balance.

Tricia's friend wandered away and Bonnie explained Elena's spell to her. "I don't practice," Tricia said when she'd finished. "But I do have my Auntie's grimoire. I can't get it now but if you come by the reception I'll have it for you." The bride disappeared for a moment and came back with an invitation.

"Are you sure this won't throw anything off?" Bonnie asked, having war flashbacks to Caroline's Mystic Falls party planning days, where any last minute changes spelled the end of the world. Tricia's friend reappeared by the door.

"I'm the bride, I can do whatever I want." Tricia smiled. "Plus we're family or whatever. I hope I'll see you and your boyfriend tomorrow."

"Oh! _No._ He's not my-"

Her friend gasped, and looked at Tricia. "We could set her up with _Trevor_ ," she said, turning back to Bonnie standing in the doorway. "He's Adam's Best Man's brother's college roommate. He's sweet...ish. Kind of balding? _Very_ rich."

"Yes. Yes that man by the car is my boyfriend," she said quickly, wide eyed and mortified.

"Oh," she said, disappointed. Tricia mouthed an apology for her friend and added a chipper, "I'll see you tomorrow!"

Bonnie wished her goodnight and walked back to the car, trying to figure out what just happened.

"So?" Damon asked, clearly still put out at being left behind.

"So, we're going to a wedding." Bonnie leaned against the car beside him. "And if anybody asks, you're my boyfriend. Don't." She added, knowing he was itching to say something snarky and inappropriate.

He held his tongue. "She's bringing us the grimoire tomorrow. I was thinking since we were in the city we could get a real hotel tonight." Bonnie continued. "And I'm getting my own room."

"Bon, you don-" Damon said, but she cut him off.

"You did something really shitty, Damon. And I may have to be trapped in a car with you for all hours of the day, but tonight? I need my space."

"I'm sorry," he said quietly.

"Are you?" She asked. "Honestly, are you _actually_? Because you knew exactly what you were doing."

"That thing you said about Elena, I was hurt. I-"

"That's not an excuse."

"I know." She didn't respond. Damon stared that the ground, and shifted guiltily. "I knew it would piss you off. That's why I did it. I didn't think it would actually hurt you."

He looked up at her, the moonlight reflecting in his eyes. "I'm really sorry, Bonnie."

She picked up the keys. "Okay."

"Okay?" His brows furrowed together.

"Okay." Bonnie walked around to the driver's side and opened the door.

Damon opened the passenger side, leaning on the roof of the car. "What does _that_ mean?"

"It means I heard you."

"And?"

"And I heard you. What am I supposed to say? That I accept your apology? Because I don't," she said, sliding into her seat.

He slid into his. "Bonnie."

"If you really want to make this up to me, stop meeting my absolute lowest expectations of you. I don't deserve that." She pulled her seatbelt on.

Damon leaned back in his seat. "Ouch."

"Don't."

"Bonnie?" He looked over at her.

She fiddled with the rearview mirror instead of meeting his eyes. "Mm?"

"I really am sorry."

"I'm ready to go," she said, gesturing to his seatbelt. When Bonnie heard the click, she pulled away from Tricia's house without another word.

Bonnie woke up the next morning to Damon banging on her hotel room door. She slept like a _dream_. A whole bed to herself, a shower with adequate water pressure, and a tv with more than four channels felt absolutely luxurious.

"Rise and shine, Bon Bon!" His muffled voice floated through the door. She groaned and rolled out of bed unhappily.

"What?" She opened the door, grumpiness oozing out of her pores.

"Good morning to you too, sunshine," he said, slipping his foot inside the door before Bonnie could close it on him.

"The wedding isn't for a few hours," she mumbled, walking away from him back into her hotel room. "And I still need to buy a dress."

"About that." Damon followed her in, shutting the door behind him. "I thought I could help you find one."

"And why would you do that?" Bonnie asked, pulling clothes out of her duffle bag to find something to wear out shopping.

"To… make it up to you?" He said hopefully. She shot him an unimpressed look. "I'll pay," he added.

Bonnie considered it for a moment. "Fine," she agreed, not wanting to shell out the cash for something that wouldn't make it travelling in her bag.

"What kind of fake boyfriend would I be if I didn't buy my beautiful girl a beautiful dress." He grinned at her.

She rolled her eyes. "As if you'd _ever_ have a chance after the shit you've pulled," she muttered under her breath, gathering her clothes and toiletries and walking to the bathroom, leaving him alone. As the door clicked shut, Damon sat on her bed trying to figure out why that _stung_ so much.

They found a small boutique just outside of the tourist heavy parts of the city. Bonnie parsed through the racks of clothes and Damon followed her around, unusually in tune with anticipating her needs.

"What about these?" He asked, holding out two separate pairs of heels.

Bonnie shook her head. "Too strappy," she said, pulling a dress out only to replace it a moment later.

"And the ones before that weren't strappy _enough_." Damon frowned at shoes and returned them to the woman working in the boutique.

"I'll have a better idea when I find the dress," Bonnie said, determined to find something. They'd been out an hour and her patience was already wearing thin.

She knew the next dress she pulled out was the one. It was black, it was simple, and it was beautiful. Damon was off poking at more shoes and she handed the dress to the boutique's employee.

"Wait, I didn't get a chance to see it." He came back a second too late, and the dress was already covered. Bonnie shrugged, slipping him the tag to get rung up.

"I'm going to get ready, maybe get a manicure at the hotel spa if there's time," Bonnie said, taking the dress off the counter. "Is this going to be a thing where I have to lay down ground rules, or can I trust you not to be an ass tonight?"

Damon crossed his heart. "No sleeping with your cousins."

" _Or_ bridesmaids."

"Or bridesmaids," he agreed.

Bonnie watched him for a minute and sighed. "Maybe I should just go alone. I can be in and out to get the grimoire and we can just leave."

"We're here for the spell," Damon affirmed seriously. But his eyes twinkled when he added, "And maybe a dance."

He was at her door again a few hours later, tugging at his untailored, rented tux. Bonnie spent the rest of the afternoon blissfully alone, not in a car, and in a building with air conditioning that worked. She opened the door for him and went back to her bag to pull out her earrings.

Damon hovered at the door. "You look beautiful, Bon," he said.

"Thank you." She gave him a half-hearted smile, appreciating the lack of unnecessary snarky comments.

The hall was decorated beautifully. Bonnie and Damon were seated at a table with other distant, non-Bennett relations just off of the dance floor. When dinner was finished and the toasts were over, Tricia pulled Bonnie out on the dance floor.

"Congratulations!" she yelled over the music, and Trish spun her, laughing. Bonnie envied the wide smile the bride wore, grabbing the flower girl running by to dance with them as well.

"Thanks! My wedding planner has the book; she said she'd find you when she has a minute!" Tricia was suddenly pulled away by a bridesmaid, the friend from last night, for some pictures.

Heels long removed, Bonnie danced with the flower girl on her feet. Her heart felt lighter than it had in days. Damon sat at the table alone, swirling the bourbon in his glass, watching the smile break out on Bonnie's face as she danced and found himself missing the days when he was the one to put that smile there.

"Hey," a bridesmaid slid into the chair beside him, leaning her elbow on the table for balance after a couple drinks. "I'm Angie."

He offered her a smile and took a swig of his bourbon. "Damon," he introduced himself.

"I noticed you sitting here all by yourself." She traced circles on the tablecloth innocently. "You don't have to be, I have a room upstairs," Angie slurred.

Damon stared into the bottom of his glass. "Don't move," he finally said, standing from the table. His eyes scanned the room, and eventually landed on who he was looking for. Approaching her, he tapped the other bridesmaid on the shoulder.

He leaned in so she could hear, "Angie seems to have one cocktail too many. She could use somebody stepping in." The bridesmaid followed his gaze to where Angie was slumped over at the table, and after a quick thank you, rushed over to her friend's side.

"Are you Bonnie?" She turned around to see a well dressed, slightly balding man staring at her earnestly. "Olivia said to come find you. I'm Trevor."

Bonnie felt uncomfortable under his gaze. "Uh, hi," she said politely, already searching for a way out of this conversation. A hand wrapped around her waist.

"Everything alright, _honey_?" Damon asked, staring Trevor down. He backed off instantly, sweating, and mumbling excuses. Bonnie pulled Damon's arm off of her.

"I could have handled it," she said. Damon offered a hand as the song turned slow, and she took it reluctantly.

"I know," he said, placing his other hand at the small of her back, and she slid hers on his shoulder. "But that's why I'm here right? To ward off the men not good enough for you that relatives try to set you up with?" Damon swayed with her to the music.

"True," she conceded. "But who's going to ward off _you_?" Bonnie smirked, but Damon felt something inexplicably piercing in his chest.

" _Ha_." He twirled her around his finger so she couldn't see the look on his face.

Damon kept silent for the rest of the song, vowing to himself that from now on he would be a man worthy of being in Bonnie Bennett's life.


	6. Squirrel Hunt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new lead brings new revelations about the nature of the spell to light. Bonnie needs a pep talk, a squirrel joins the party, and Caroline has a few...concerns.

Bonnie basked in the sun shining through the windows and adjusted her sunglasses on her nose. The Jackson 5 floated through the car's radio as she watched the signs flying past, eager for another rest stop as the needle on the dash in front of her slowly drifted closer and closer to the dreaded _E_. Beside her, Damon fruitlessly poured over Tricia's grimoire.

The average grimoire is usually not legible, especially to someone who doesn't practice magic, with pages filled with short hand notes, drawings, and rarely entirely written in English. And if a witch is particularly paranoid, it's not unheard of to create a whole new to language to keep your spells from falling into the wrong hands.

"I think I'm close," Damon announced for the third time that morning, comparing the open page of the grimoire to a scan of the plant spell Leah sent with them when they left New York.

Bonnie bit back a snide remark, not wanting to scare his newfound dedication to their mission away. "I'll take a look when we stop for gas. We'll switch again," she said. She'd asked this morning if he didn't mind if she drove, but Bonnie didn't imagine Damon would actually attempt to decipher the grimoire on his own.

He waved her off. "I'm helping," he told her, pointing between the two pages. "Look, matching squiggles."

"Your focus has been noted," she assured him, rolling her eyes good-naturedly, and pulled the car into a gas station off the highway. Bonnie tossed the keys to Damon across the hood of the Camaro so he could fill it up, and made her way inside the rest stop to grab a snack.

Pulling her phone out she dialed Caroline's number quickly while she considered whether she was feeling Doritos or popcorn.

" _Bonnie!"_ Caroline greeted, and Bonnie grinned when she heard her friend's voice, a pang of homesickness tugging in her chest. " _Any news?"_

"Just missed you," she said, walking to the next aisle with all the chocolate.

" _Aw, I miss you so much. Things are so quiet here without you."_

Bonnie pulled a pack of M&M's from the shelf, turning them over in her hand. "Damon is convinced he's found something in the latest grimoire. He's been reading it all morning - and failing completely. I think he's still trying to make it up to me for New York."

" _What did he do?"_

"More like who." She returned the chocolate to its place and eyed the Starbursts below them.

" _Bonnie you didn't…"_

She almost dropped the candy. " _Care!_ It was one of the cousins."

" _And you're mad at him for that?"_

"Of course," Bonnie said, narrowing her eyes at the tone in her friend's voice. "Her twin and I were working our asses off, and Damon just goofs around all day and they disappear into her room."

" _Classy. So you're_ just _mad at him because he wasn't helping?"_

"Well, it's a little more complicated than that. He overheard me say something I wish he hadn't, and he wanted to piss me off."

" _And him sleeping with your cousin pissed you off."_ Caroline stated.

"Yes." Her stomach clenched at the implications. "What's with the third degree, Care?"

" _I'm just trying to get the whole picture of what happened."_

"Why did your mind jump there immediately? What do you think this trip is about?" Bonnie asked. Something in her chest feeling tight and constricted.

Caroline paused for a minute before answering. " _I think you're close, and I think you're spending a lot of time together. I also think you're both still trying to figure out how to heal."_

"Oh my God," Bonnie said, the realization just hitting her. "When I left, you weren't warning me not to kill him. You were warning me to not do something _stupid_."

" _Well, some_ one _."_

"Unbelievable," Bonnie said, putting the candy back. She suddenly lost her appetite. "I have to go, Caroline."

" _Bonnie, wait-"_

"We're about to get back on the road. We'll talk later." Bonnie had never rejected the idea of her and Damon together before when someone brought it up. Their flirty rapport and hamming it up when someone assumed they were an item was always just a _joke_. It was one of their bits.

But this wasn't some stranger making assumptions, this was her best friend.

Caroline sighed. " _Promise?"_

"Promise."

Bonnie ended their call, the homesickness in her chest replaced with a tangled knot of anxiety. Lifting her eyes from her phone, she saw Damon leaning against the car, arms crossed and staring down the highway. He noticed her watching and lifted his hand in a small wave. Brushing off the feelings the conversation with Caroline left her with, Bonnie returned his gesture with a tight smile and slid into the passenger seat, eager to get back on the road.

She frowned, her eyes furrowing together, staring down at the grimoire. Looking, between the book and the scanned page, she narrowed her eyes.

"I _told_ you," Damon said, noticing her expression between watching the road ahead. "Matching squiggles."

Bonnie fell back into her seat, disbelief riddled across her face. "You did," she conceded. "You found the _one_ page with a _single_ matching symbol." She leaned forwards again over the pages to triple check.

Noticing the beaming grin that spread across his face she added, "It could still just be a fluke."

She pulled out the notebook and filled it with her own notes from the page, flipping back and forth to try to decipher the spell they'd found. Two and a half hours later, Bonnie puffed out her cheeks and exhaled loudly.

"No wonder Tricia doesn't practice magic," she said, stretching her neck to each side to work out the kinks. Damon look over quizzically. "Her family is so creepy. This spell is basically taxidermy with witchcraft. It looks like her aunt used it after her cat died."

"So that's just a spell to mummify cats?" he asked, not hiding his disappointment at his contribution being useless.

"Not exactly. It preserves the body in some sort of magical statis. _Theoretically,_ the spell could be applied to something living." Bonnie flipped back and traced her finger over the various marks, half sentences, and what seemed to be gibberish adorning the page. Shaking her head, she added, "I can't seem to find anything about linking the spell to anything though, living or otherwise."

"It's a start," he said, staring out the front window once again while Bonnie returned to pouring over the grimoire.

* * *

 

Damon pulled into an almost empty state trail parking lot, nudging the sleeping Bonnie's shoulder gently. She sat up, rubbing her eyes, and glanced around their surroundings. The late afternoon sun shone through her window, and tall trees swayed in the wind around them.

"Where are we?" she mumbled, stretching her arms.

"We're going on a hike." Damon grinned, hopping out of the car.

Confused, Bonnie climbed out after him. "What?"

"Don't forget the spells," he instructed, pulling some gear out of the back of the Camaro. Still not completely awake yet, Bonnie gathered her notes from the seat and slipped them into the backpack he tossed her.

"What is happening?" Bonnie looked around, entirely befuddled from their abrupt stop.

"We're going to hike that trail," he said, gesturing to the map post marking the start. "Then we're going to ditch it and find a nice secluded spot for you to practice the mummy plant spell."

"That's not-" Bonnie was going to correct him on the nature of the spell, but decided she was too sleepy to care. Her body ached from being in the cramped car for so long, and her muscles itched to be used again.

The clearing they found was just far enough away from the trail so they wouldn't be heard, but not so far away that they would have trouble finding their way back. Towering trees surrounded them, and the forest buzzed with wildlife.

Bonnie found a lone flower at the edge of their clearing, and gently dug it up, placing the roots with some dirt in a styrofoam coffee cup from early that morning. She settled herself in the centre of the clearing, sitting cross legged with the flower placed directly in front of her and Leah's spell beside it.

Making sure she had everything she needed to practice, Damon disappeared into the forest to see if he could find any lost hikers to "assist" for his dinner.

After what felt like ages of practicing the required incantation, Bonnie moved on to performing the spell on the flower. Her hands hovered above the petals as the unfamiliar words fell off her tongue.

"Any luck?" Damon finally reappeared, effectively interrupting her, for which she was extremely grateful.

"I can't tell," Bonnie sighed, opening her eyes and staring down at the flower. It didn't look any different. Turning her gaze towards Damon, she did a double take when she saw what he was holding.

"Brought you something," he said, cupping a wiggling squirrel with both hands. She reached out to take it from him but Damon pulled his arms back. "Careful, he bites."

Bonnie drew a circle in the dirt, indicating for Damon to put the squirrel in the centre while she whispered an incantation to trap the animal. She knelt down by the circle and Damon followed suit.

"I can't wait to tell Stefan you went squirrel hunting." Bonnie grinned. The squirrel settled once he realized he wasn't confined to Damon's grip anymore, and explored his small space.

"I didn't _eat_ any. I'm not a monster," he said, a smirk adorning his face.

"Oh, you've got something-" Bonnie used her thumb to wipe a dab of blood from the corner of his mouth. He was grateful she couldn't hear how his pulse sped up at that moment. Damon offered a smile in thanks, and she turned her attention to the squirrel and Tricia's grimoire.

The sky was almost dark and Bonnie was still chanting over the squirrel. The squirrel who was still happily hopping around, no sign of magical stasis in sight. Frustrated, she pushed the grimoire away and undid the spell trapping her test subject.

"There's something missing," she said, lying down on the ground, staring up at the grey clouds rolling above the trees.

Damon, who hadn't said a word for hours while she worked, came over to lay down beside her. "Talk me through it," he instructed.

"The spell can work without being linked like Elena and I are, but it needs to bound to something to hold it all together." The wind picked up, and the trees swayed overhead.

"What kind of something?"

"Some sort of magical artifact, I guess. If I had a stone or something I could bind the spell and put the squirrel under a similar, if not the same, sleeping spell," she explained. A defeated sigh escaped her lips before she added, "But that also means Kai would've had to bind our spell with something really powerful to be able to hold it with humans."

"Oh." Damon shifted beside her.

"I might be able to transfer the spell to another object and then unravel it from there. I don't know. There's so much about this spell that I just don't understand," she continued. "I feel like such a hypocrite. All I can think of is going home. I miss Caroline. I miss my bed. I gave you so much grief about not making this your top priority, and now at the first sign of difficulty I'm ready to pack up and go home."

"You're not going to quit," he said with absolute certainty.

Bonnie turned her head towards him. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. You're the most obnoxiously determined person I know. If anyone can get to the bottom of this spell it's you," he said, smirking at the sky.

"Would a real compliment ever kill you?" She laughed, and stared back up at the clouds growing darker.

Damon shifted his gaze to her.

"You brought Jeremy back from the _dead._ You got us in and out of prison worlds like it was nothing. You can do this." He stood, brushing off the dirt and held out a hand to Bonnie, still laying on the ground. "Let's get back to the car before the rain starts."

"Okay," she said, a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. Bonnie took his hand, and Damon pulled her to her feet.

Thunder rumbled overhead and large drops of rain began to pour steadily as they made it to the parking lot. Damon and Bonnie exchanged looks and raced to the other side of the lot where they were parked.

Damon got there first using his enhanced speed. He fumbled with the keys and climbed into the car, reaching over to unlock the passenger door. Bonnie took a moment to stand in the rain, lifting her face to the sky and letting the water pour over her, feeling a renewed connection to nature and her powers.

"Bon!" Damon called, prompting her to climb in. She slammed the door shut, placing the styrofoam cup holding her flower onto the dashboard. The rain pounded heavily on the roof of the Camaro as the pair tried to catch their breaths, both completely soaked through.

She felt exhilarated. Her heart pounded, and she couldn't help but let a smile spread across her face. Damon's smile was smaller, fighting to remain under his usual taunting facade, but a genuine moment of happiness slipped through. He reached across the car and gently tucked the wet strands of hair sticking to Bonnie's cheek behind her ear.

The rain washed away the doubts, the disappointments, and the frustrations that weighed them both down for last week and with a new commitment to the task at hand, the pair exchanged one last determined glance before Damon slid the keys into the ignition and pulled out of the parking lot.


	7. Rhea Bennett

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Closer to unraveling the secrets behind Kai’s spell, Bonnie and Damon meet the newest relative on the Bennett Family Reunion Tour... who happens to need a favour.

"I'm not lost," Damon said, glaring out the front windshield as if he could scare up the sign leading him to the road they were looking for.

Bonnie held her phone at various heights around the car, searching for reception. "You're totally lost," she said again. "Pull over, let me try to get the GPS on here working."

"We're _not_ lost," he reiterated, frustration seeping into his voice.

She shot him a look, clearly displaying her disagreement at that statement. "Pull over," she repeated.

"Fine." With a roll of his eyes, Damon pulled the car onto the shoulder of the isolated country road. "But not because we're lost," he clarified, before climbing out of the car. Bonnie unfolded the map and lay it on the hood of the Camaro, tracing her finger along the route they were on.

"Get the notebook, I need to double check the address," she instructed, brows furrowed together trying to determine where exactly they were. Damon dug through the glove compartment and returned a moment later with the notebook filled with Bennetts. He flipped it open.

"Rhea Bennett, lives in the middle of back ass of nowhere Indiana," he read.

"Seriously, what's the actual address?" Bonnie frowned at the map.

"It just says Bass Lake, off of Route 35. Didn't Caroline write these out? I for one am disappointed at the lack of detail." Damon shook his head and flipped the notebook shut. "Call her."

"No reception, remember?" Bonnie gestured to her phone lying uselessly beside the map, silently grateful she didn't have to make that call for reasons she couldn't quite pinpoint.

Damon pulled a displeased face, weighing their options. "We could backtrack to that rest stop and use the payphone," he finally suggested. Bonnie reluctantly gathered the map and followed him back into the car.

They pulled into the rest stop beside the payphone as the sun began to set. Damon dug around the cup holder for change, and held it out for Bonnie once he'd gathered enough.

"You take this one. I'm going to try to orient ourselves," she said, and gestured to map still in her hands. A flicker of confusion spread over Damon's face momentarily, but he agreed.

He slipped the change into the payphone and dialed Stefan's number, watching Bonnie pore over the map in the car.

"Evening, baby bro," Damon greeted. "You with Blondie?"

He could feel his brother rolling his eyes through the phone. " _She's here. Why?"_

"Some of the addresses she dug up leave something to be desired, think she'd care to elaborate on Rhea Bennett of Bass Lake, Indiana?" he asked, eyeing a woman approaching the Camaro suspiciously.

" _Damon?"_ His brother's voice brought him back to his own conversation. " _Caroline wants to talk to Bonnie."_

"She's… busy," he answered, as Bonnie and the stranger struck up a conversation.

" _Is everything okay out there? I heard about New York."_

"What?" Something akin to guilt and shame swirled in his stomach thinking about Bonnie confiding his indiscretions to her closest gal pal. "Just give me the address, Stefan."

Bonnie tapped on the side of the payphone booth, effectively interrupting him. "That lady knows where Rhea lives," she said, nodding towards the stranger. "She said she'll take us."

"Caroline wants to talk to you," Damon relayed to Bonnie, holding the phone out to her. He was further surprised at the slight expression of apprehension that flashed across her features, and watching her carefully, he returned the phone to his ear. "Nevermind we found a Plan B." Damon dropped the phone back onto its receiver.

The stranger climbed into a small red bug, not unlike Stefan's, and drove steadily ahead of them, leading the Camaro to Rhea's address.

"Are we going to talk about what just happened?" Damon broached.

Bonnie flipped through the notebook, looking for nothing in particular. "Nope," she answered, flipping another page over.

"Why aren't you talking to Caroline?" he asked outright.

Bonnie stiffened. "What makes you think I'm not talking to Caroline?"

"It doesn't take a genius to figure it out," he said.

"Clearly." She flipped another page over.

"What's the fight?"

"There's no fight," Bonnie said, and annoyed edge her tone forming.

Flipping a coin in his head, Damon finally asked, "Was this before or after you told her about Sarah?"

"What does Sarah have to do with this?" She flipped another page, getting more irritated with the words _Sarah_ and _New York_ by the day.

"Caroline isn't exactly my biggest fan. If this came up because you were defending me-"

Bonnie scoffed loudly. "Don't worry, I'm _not_ defending you."

Ouch. "Right," he said, backing off without his curiosity satiated.

She closed the notebook firmly. "Caroline said something that got under my skin, and I don't want to talk to her right now. I'm feeling something _very_ similar towards someone _else_ in my life at the moment," Bonnie looked at him pointedly.

"Noted," he said, dropping the subject entirely.

The red bug pulled onto a dirt road leading up to a quaint farmhouse, and the woman from the rest stop climbed out, watching them approach. Something didn't feel right.

"Bon," Damon warned, but was suddenly overcome with a fiery pain flashing through his head.

"Don't move," the woman said to Bonnie, keeping an arm out to perform the spell on Damon. "I need to know why a vampire is looking for me."

" _He's_ not," Bonnie called out, hands twitching to interfere.

Rhea narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "And who are you?"

"Bonnie Bennett."

"I should have known." Rhea dropped the spell immediately and gestured for Bonnie to follow her inside. " _He_ can wait."

Rhea adjusted her glasses, and looked Bonnie up and down. "He's with you?"

"In a manner of speaking," she answered. Rhea gazed outside suspiciously and, with a resigned sigh, invited Damon in.

"I've had some… unpleasant encounters with vampires recently. I thought you might be one of them," she explained, ushering them into her living room.

Bonnie looked around in awe; the walls with no windows were covered in bookshelves and there were plants and herbs growing out of every nook and cranny. A messy lab table filled with ingredients and notes was pushed up against the window on the far side of the room.

"Like my little workshop?" Rhea asked with a smile, noticing the look on Bonnie's face. After offering them tea, Rhea sat them down on her loud, floral couches. "Something tells me you're here for a favour," she said, sliding her glasses onto the top of her head.

After hearing the whole story, Rhea shook her head. "You should have come to me first. I can't believe Leah didn't send you."

"You know Leah?" Bonnie asked.

"Of course. I see the girls a few times a year when I go out east. Leah and I workshop spells and Sarah, well, Sarah's just a riot," Rhea smiled pleasantly.

"Yeah, Sarah's _great_ ," Bonnie said, shooting Damon a look. He found a very intricate design on the rug to study.

"Moving past what I just stepped into the middle of here," Rhea said, picking up on the tension that bubbled up at the mention of Sarah's name, "if I'm going to help you with this spell I'm going to need something from you in return."

"What kind of something?" Damon narrowed his eyes.

"I'm developing a new version of a cloaking spell," she explained, "specifically to cloak against vampires. I'm testing one right now which I believe is why it was so difficult for you to find my home, but I've run out of an ingredient and I need some assistance in retrieving it."

"What kind of ingredient?" Bonnie asked.

"Werewolf venom." Rhea leaned back against the couch across from them and gauged their reactions. "There's a full moon tomorrow and I need someone to collect more samples."

"And you can't do it yourself?" Damon asked roughly, and Bonnie nudged his knee with hers as a warning.

"My strengths lie in theoretical magic and spell development. Using magic as a weapon, especially alone, isn't my forte," she said.

"Seemed to do just fine earlier," Damon muttered, and Bonnie nudged him harder. A smirk tugged at the corners of Rhea's mouth. "I'm in," he announced after a quick glance at Bonnie, who remained silent.

Rhea settled them into her guest rooms for the night, and after breakfast the next morning began pulling out stacks of books and loose notes, splaying them throughout the room along with Bonnie's research on the spell.

"You're on the nose about being able to transfer the binder," Rhea assessed, reading over the notes, the midafternoon sun shining through the windows. "And unlinking the two of you should be relatively simple. The real trouble comes in with Kai's loophole prevention."

Damon watched from the doorway as they worked. He'd pored over the pages with them earlier, but was quickly out of his depth.

"In order to unravel the other two layers of the spell we have to dismantle that part first," Rhea continued and looked up, placing a hand on Bonnie's shoulder. "Don't touch this spell until we figure that part out. That's the part that will get you killed."

Bonnie nodded, the weight of the severity of the spell hitting her again. "So how do we do it?"

"Beats me. In my experience, spells like this require a personal touch. Usually blood," she said, talking herself through the spell. "Let me worry about this part. You focus on the stasis portion of the spell. Transferring it is doable, but because we have no idea what Kai used to bind the spell we're going to need a very powerful artifact to transfer it to, not to mention some sort of celestial event and a handful of witches to actually perform the damned thing."

"That's a lot to get in order," Bonnie said quietly, feeling overwhelmed at all the moving parts of the spell.

"One step at a time." Rhea smiled at her encouragingly. "And the first step is to master the stasis spell on a living being."

Bonnie spent the rest of daylight outside, attempting to put a robin into magical stasis using various stones from Rhea's collection as binders to no avail. As the sun began to set, Rhea pulled Damon aside.

"Phil Getts lives at the edge of town," she said, adjusting her glasses on her nose and handing him a packaged syringe for the venom. "On full moons he used to chain himself up in his basement, but last month he went rogue. Another vampire, a friend of mine… well, she's not around anymore. Even I can't bring you back from that."

Damon nodded, understanding the implication. "I'll be careful." Pushing his somber mood down, he hopped down the steps of the porch and called out to Bonnie, and together they climbed into the Camaro on their way to meet Phil.

The moon rose full overhead, and the streets were quiet and still. "What's our game plan?" Bonnie asked, getting out of the car.

" _My_ game plan is to find our pal Phil and siphon out some venom." Damon pulled out the syringe from his pocket to show her.

"And my job is to…" She nodded patronizingly, prompting him to finish.

"Wait patiently by the car?" Damon suggested with a smirk.

"So your plan is to basically tackle a werewolf and stab his gums. By yourself," Bonnie stated.

Damon placed a hand over his heart, feigning hurt. "Bonnie Bennett, are you _doubting_ me?"

" _Yes_ ," she answered obviously.

"Rude." Damon grinned, at her. Bonnie rolled her eyes. "I told you, I'm not letting anything happen to you," he added seriously.

"And I'm just supposed to sit by and watch you wrestle a werewolf? Do I have to remind you what happens when that thing sinks his teeth into you?" Bonnie followed Damon through the empty streets, and pulled on his arm to stop him. "I'm not letting anything happen to you either," she said.

Before he could respond, a howl interrupted him. Damon turned around to face a snarling grey wolf standing at the end of the road. Before Bonnie could stop him, Damon sped towards the animal with open arms, and the pair rolled twice until he lay on his back.

"Idiot," Bonnie muttered under her breath, and chased after him.

Damon used his left arm to brace against the wolf's throat to keep his snapping teeth from reaching him. He gripped the animal's fur in his fist and used his free hand to dig through his pockets in search of the syringe. A fear gripped his chest as Damon realized he underestimated the amount of strength it would take to keep the beast away.

"Why do you have to be like this, Phil?" he grunted, fighting to stay in control and find an opening to steal some venom.

Bonnie's chanting floated in the night's air, getting louder and more powerful, finally culminating in the werewolf slumping onto his chest. Damon pushed him off to find her standing over them, clutching a moonstone, a smirk dancing on her lips.

"Thanks for distracting him," she said, offering him a hand. Once back on his feet, he slipped Phil's wolf body over his shoulders.

"I had it handled," Damon said, lugging him back to the car.

"Mmhmm," Bonnie nodded. "Of course you did."

Damon dropped Phil on Rhea's porch. She appeared at the doorway, taking in the wolf's body, Damon's dishevelled appearance, and the moonstone in Bonnie's hand.

"You did the stasis spell," Rhea said and grinned at the witch proudly before ushering them inside. She pushed papers and instruments off her lab table and had Damon place Phil there so she could extract some venom.

"Are you going to keep him like that?" Bonnie asked, turning the stone over in her hands.

Rhea shrugged. "Until I construct the cloaking spell. Normally I wouldn't, but Phil is, pardon my french, a giant fucking dick. He can stand to have a time out," she said, poking at his teeth. Bonnie placed the moonstone on the table beside him.

"The stones matter," she told her. "The moonstone wouldn't work on the robin earlier, but it worked on the werewolf. I think the stones, or whatever is being used as a binder, have to reflect the living thing they're binding."

Adjusting her glasses, Rhea smiled. "That makes sense," she said, nodding and making a note on one of the loose sheets for later. Looking up, she added, "I made sure the rooms were ready for you when you returned. Make sure you wake me before leaving in the morning so I can see you off."

Bonnie agreed and Rhea sent her upstairs with a hug goodnight before she returned her attention to the werewolf splayed out on her table.

"Bon," Damon paused at his door, as she gripped the handle of hers.

"Hm?"

"Thank you." He shifted his weight between his feet. "For tonight."

"You had it handled," she teased gently, the corner of her mouth turned up.

"Well, I wanted to thank you on the _slim_ chance I didn't."

"Goodnight, Damon," she said with a tired smile and disappeared into her room. The door shut with a soft _click_.

"Night, Bon," he whispered after her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear this is the last spell info dump chapter! And now Bonnie knows what to look for moving forward, while Rhea tackles the murderdeath part of Kai's spell. Unraveling it is doable...if they can get all the right pieces in order.


End file.
